Latest Interviews
Showing 796–810 of 1,932 interview transcripts.
Clear all filters- The Economist24 min
More than Sheikh could stick at: Bangladesh’s PM resigns
Sheikh, Jason Palmer, Rosie Bloor, Lena Schipper, Don Wineland, Anne Rowe
Following the violent collapse of Bangladesh's 20-year Awami League rule, an interim government led by the President has taken power to release political prisoners and address the unrest sparked by student demands against job quotas and dynastic cronyism. Simultaneously, China solidifies its global leadership in autonomous mobility as Baidu expands its Apollo Go fleet in Wuhan to 1,000 vehicles, aiming for profitability while navigating regulatory competition and local taxi driver resistance. The geopolitical landscape also mourns the legacy of Thomas Neff, the "free agent" diplomat who engineered the 1993 conversion of dismantled Soviet warheads into US nuclear fuel, successfully eliminating 20,000 nuclear weapons through direct economic pragmatism.
- 80,000 Hours23 min
Highlights: Lewis Bollard on the 7 best ways to end factory farming
Lewis Bollard, Luisa Rodriguez
Philosopher Roger Scruton and advocate Lewis Bollard underscore a growing global consensus that factory farming is ethically indefensible, driving a shift toward pragmatic incremental reforms rather than revolutionary abolition. These strategic efforts have mobilized over 3,000 companies to adopt cage-free supply chains, currently benefiting approximately 200 million hens with a projected increase to 450 million, while simultaneously addressing the severe welfare crises facing fish and aquaculture industries. This momentum is further solidified by a recent bipartisan US Supreme Court ruling upholding California Proposition 12, which establishes a critical legal precedent allowing states to ban the sale of products from cruelly confined animals across the nation.
- Goldman Sachs39 min
Ancestry CEO Deb Liu on leading the largest for-profit genealogy company
Deb Liu, Deborah Liu, Alex Chi
Ancestry CEO Deb Liu is reshaping the company's strategy from solo research to a shared "Me to We" experience by integrating AI tools and social features that preserve family stories before they are lost. Leveraging her background in leadership roles at Meta and PayPal, Liu champions the "fastest learner" mindset and "sponsorship" culture to dismantle barriers like imposter syndrome and the model minority myth for Asian American professionals. Her approach combines technological innovation in photo scanning and historical context reconstruction with a personal philosophy of adapting corporate success definitions to amplify diverse voices and strengthen community connections.
- a16z37 min
How Waymo Is Using GenAI to Build a Better Driver
Dmitri Dolgov, David George, Sarah Wang
Dimitri Dolgov traces the evolution of autonomous driving from the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge to Waymo's current deployment of generalizable AI across four major US cities. By combining foundational machine learning breakthroughs like Transformers with massive synthetic simulation, Waymo has demonstrated a 76% reduction in property damage and operates 24/7 in diverse weather conditions. The company now focuses on scaling complex urban logistics while maintaining a hybrid market strategy that partners with Uber and prioritizes rigorous safety validation over short-term commercial shortcuts.
- The Economist23 min
Enter staged right: misinformation feeds Britain’s riots
Jason Palmer, Andrew Palmer, Moeka Iida, Robert Guest
Recent civil unrest in Britain following disinformation-fueled riots over a knife attack has prompted an emergency government response focused on accelerated sentencing, while Japan's recent Tokyo gubernatorial election revealed a sharp generational divide as candidate Shinji Ishimaru leveraged anti-establishment social media tactics to capture 42% of the youth vote. Simultaneously, analysts draw parallels between these modern political fractures and the cynical power dynamics depicted in *House of the Dragon*, where fictional strongmen mimic real-world leaders like Nayib Bukele and exploit populism to justify extra-judicial crackdowns. Together, these developments highlight a global shift where young voters and far-right groups increasingly challenge traditional institutions, while fictional narratives underscore the dangerous reality that political violence often escalates when leaders prioritize power over the suffering of the common people.
- Milken Institute45 min
Global Investment Outlook | Asia Summit 2023
Laura Deal Lacey, Michael Milken, Haslinda Amin, Lim Chow Kiat, Steffen Meister
A fragmented discussion addressed speculative topics ranging from unverified energy transition goals to undefined geopolitical strategies involving the United States, China, and the United Kingdom. Participants mentioned broad concepts like artificial intelligence, fiscal accountability, and market volatility without establishing concrete data, specific timelines, or actionable policy outcomes. The session concluded with general acknowledgments but failed to produce a coherent narrative, leaving the stated objectives regarding value capture and supply chain dynamics unresolved.
- Goldman Sachs44 min
TPG CEO Jon Winkelried on the evolution of private equity and alternative markets
TPG co-president John Winkelried outlines the firm's strategic expansion to $224 billion in assets under management through the acquisition of Angelo Gordon, a move designed to re-enter private credit while addressing industry consolidation and a looming maturity wall in leveraged loans. Drawing on decades of leadership experience from Goldman Sachs and the alternative asset sector, Winkelried emphasizes the convergence of capital bases with permanent structures to navigate macroeconomic compression and generational transitions. The discussion further highlights how shifting investor preferences and the democratization of alternatives are driving a cultural shift toward treating all stakeholders with equal respect to secure long-term resilience in an increasingly complex market.
- a16z31 min
AI in Pharmaceutical R&D with Kim Branson
Kim Branson, GSK's Global Head of AI/ML, is driving a strategic initiative that creates a "sheltered bubble" to rapidly build AI capabilities before integrating them into the company's broader drug discovery workflow. His team currently leverages active learning loops and computational pathology to accelerate target identification and clinical trial optimization, achieving twentyfold reductions in screen times and enabling precise patient stratification. Branson emphasizes that the industry's primary bottleneck is access to longitudinal data with outcomes, positioning GSK to transition from simple algorithmic efficiency to a data-driven "juggernaut" defined by proprietary datasets and mechanistic biological integration.
- The Economist24 min
Yuan direction: Chinese firms head south
Rosie Bloor, Jason Palmer, Tom Lee Devlin, Wendell Stevenson, Tom Nuttall
Amidst domestic growth headwinds and Western protectionism, Chinese firms are aggressively expanding into the Global South by establishing local factories and leveraging the Belt and Road Initiative, a strategy that challenges Western manufacturers' competitiveness. Concurrently, Russian military campaigns have intensified attacks on Ukraine's diverse energy infrastructure, forcing the nation to rely on imported Soviet-era components and diesel generators while navigating a paradox between immediate thermal needs and long-term nuclear or renewable goals. In Europe, the Döner kebab continues to evolve from a 1970s migrant adaptation into a complex cultural symbol marked by distinct national identities, cross-cultural re-exportation, and emerging regulatory disputes over quality standards.
- The Economist23 min
Struck out: A Hamas leader is assassinated
Rosie Bloor, Jason Palmer, Greg Karlstrom, Kinley Salmon, Carla Subidana
The assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and the killing of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr have heightened regional tensions while complicating ceasefire negotiations amid Iran's constrained military response. Simultaneously, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro claims an election victory despite overwhelming evidence from independent counts and the opposition indicating a decisive win for Edmundo González, triggering violent protests and a deepening political crisis. On the global health front, indoor air pollution from traditional cooking fires remains a leading cause of premature death, disproportionately affecting women and children in developing nations where financial and structural barriers hinder access to cleaner fuels.
- Goldman Sachs22 min
Can the US consumer stay strong?
David Mericle, Kate McShane, Bonnie Herzog, Alison Nathan
Goldman Sachs Chief Economist David Miracle projects moderate U.S. consumption growth in 2024, attributing current resilience to strong household balance sheets while warning that unemployment risks could trigger a shift to job loss. Retail analysts Kate McShane and Bonnie Herzog observe a bifurcated consumer environment where spending prioritizes services and essentials while lower-income demographics defer discretionary purchases and trade down to private labels. Despite these pressures, the market faces further headwinds from a five-day shorter holiday shopping window, persistent price levels, and election uncertainty, leading management to adopt cautious strategies focused on revenue growth and value optimization.
- The Economist21 min
Down to the wires: Africa’s digital lag
Rosie Bloor, Jason Palmer, Ore Ogunbiyi, Sophie Pedder, John Bleasdale
The event analyzes Africa's critical digital infrastructure deficit, highlighting how energy shortages and regulatory barriers threaten to exclude the continent from $16 trillion in potential AI-driven economic growth. It further examines the Paris Olympics' environmental contradictions, where a billion-euro cleanup of the Seine failed to prevent bacterial contamination during the triathlon despite the river's vital role in global logistics. Finally, the discussion retrospectively evaluates the enduring success of the *Blair Witch Project*, detailing its record-breaking $250 million return on a $35,000 budget through innovative viral marketing and psychological storytelling techniques.
- The Economist26 min
Warpath: Israel vows revenge on Hizbullah
Rosie Bloor, Anshul Pfeffer, Tom Sass, David Harrington, Paul Wianco
A rocket attack in the Golan Heights that killed twelve Druze children has intensified Middle East tensions, placing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under pressure to balance a necessary retaliation against Hezbollah with the strategic need to avoid all-out war while Gaza ceasefire negotiations proceed. Simultaneously, the UK faces a critical prison crisis with severe overcrowding and unsanitary conditions prompting the new Labour government to implement emergency early releases while pursuing long-term rehabilitation strategies to reverse decades of rising incarceration rates. In the cultural sector, the Kronos Quartet marks its fiftieth anniversary by retiring founding members, introducing new leadership, and launching a digital archive that prioritizes diverse commissions to fulfill its mission of expanding the classical repertoire.
- 80,000 Hours24 min
Highlights: Annie Jacobsen on what would happen if North Korea launched a nuclear weapon at the US
Annie Jacobsen, Luisa Rodriguez
Experts and former officials detail the extreme fragility of U.S. nuclear command protocols, highlighting how a six-minute decision window, analog authentication methods, and conflicting strategic priorities create high risks of catastrophic error. The discussion further exposes severe systemic vulnerabilities, including Russian early-warning inaccuracies that could misinterpret debris as hundreds of warheads and U.S. ICBM trajectories that risk triggering unintended Russian retaliation. Additionally, the briefing reveals that super electromagnetic pulse attacks could simultaneously collapse critical infrastructure like power grids, water supplies, and financial systems, leaving the population with no federal protection and facing near-total societal collapse.
- The Economist24 min
Bibi talk: a speech light on detail
Rosie Bloor, Jason Palmer, Anshul Pfeffer, Noor Gamani, Leora, Oret Okunbi, Gavin Jackson
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured a record 11 standing ovations during a strategic visit to the U.S. Congress to defend the Gaza war while facing domestic political pressure from high resignation polls. Despite emotional appeals regarding hostages, the address failed to outline a concrete post-war strategy or clarify Israel's stance on ongoing ceasefire negotiations, leaving key policy details undefined. The event underscored deep partisan divides, marked by President Biden's expected pressure for a truce and notable absences from high-profile U.S. political figures like Vice President Kamala Harris and J.D. Vance.